FZ6D Production Blog

ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I kept writing this entry over and over again. I don't want to lock this door out of stupidstition and love of the Zone. I want to keep doing it, so now I'm going to just put up an entry, nothing too final or fatal, so that we can come to a conclusion of sorts.

First, let's acknowledge that ASS = KICKED. The team that built this "new theatrical musical entertainment" went from a pair to a trio on Nov 1, 2008, so we can call that the birth date of FZ6D. From that date forward, many Fools and other experienced humans tore holes in time and space and stole the energy of distant suns in order to bring you an evening's entertainment. For the first time in my career I saw every single person on set pulling extra weight every day so that we could turn audiences into sno cones on a nightly basis. Chairs were destroyed on an almost nightly basis due to simple enthusiasm on the part of the players in the Classroom sequences. Director Scott Leggett handed out push-ups like candy to distracted minions to bring them back on point; consequently, many actors were ripped like Bruce Lee by opening night. We avoided for the most part the group flu that will rage through a tired and busted cast in the course of a long rehearsal (only one internal illness in rehearsal) and it wasn't until the end that we saw any on-stage injuries. Drummer Cosmo Jones played a show with serious food poisoning and gets a medal for managing to drive the train in such condition. We had a couple late game injuries. That's a good sign that we had traveled far enough with extensions of performance. Once people have become so tired and bedraggled that they are walking into 2x4s that have been there the whole run of the show, you know it is time to retire.

"BUT WHAT NOW?" I hear you ask, and I reply, you shouldn't shout BUT like that because it makes you look silly. As for WHAT NOW, now we wait. We would like to reopen the show in 2011. We would like to reopen in Los Angeles before we consider moving the show out of town. Why? Well, for starters, we all live here and, to be honest, there are a few thousand people who didn't see the show and who want to see it, and they all live here as well. I love the show and I know we can refine it further, tightening numbers and presentation, perhaps adding a couple cast members so that costume changes and scenes switch on and off light light bulbs. And we wouldn't mind doing this a little later in the year to take advantage of your liberated libido and murderous mindset when All Hallows is upon us, but who knows. Not that I don't like Summer, but that four-layer Satan costume will feel a whole lot better in a full house at Halloween than on the Fourth of July.

Every day I followed a serious ritual prior to the show. I had to or else I would never have the energy to kill the show stone dead every night as I intended. I would go home from work and meditate for a short while, clearing the day from my head. Stretch a good bit, pet the cats and borrow their grace and energy before heading out. Traffic would be tough (Hollywood at rush hour is no joke) so to keep focus and really raise the energy, I would play a few particular songs in a row - "Uprising" by Muse, and "This Is The New Shit", "Ka-Boom, Ka-Boom", and "Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag" by Marilyn Manson. These acted as vocal warm up and pressure-builders until I got within range of the theater. Then I would switch to "Squeezit the Moocher", which I sang every day, at least once, from Nov 1, 2008 until we closed on July 10, 2010.

I really want to have that level of focus in my life again. But you never know how the bones will roll, whether you make your point, roll craps, or have the Devil show up and grant you the POWER OF ZOMBIE! So I turn my energies elsewhere. Sometimes interesting words happen. This has been one of those times, so until the portal reopens and we are able to adventure in the Sixth Dimension once again, I happily leave you with these thoughts and the gracious thanks of the entire crew and cast of FZ6D for your careful attention paid to our diabolical entertainments. This drama may be over but it's really not the end!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

So here we are, beginning our extended run of FZ6D, and it is amazing to look back and see how the moss has grown over the cracks and we have shaped our collective selves into the beasts of stage that rule over Limbo and Hell with a smile.

YES! AN EXTENSION! We run Thursday, Friday, Saturday for the next 3 weeks, closing on July 10...and we have a special post-show Q&A with Richard Elfman, so I expect to see you soon!

I began training for the auditions as soon as the show was announced. When September rolled around, I was laid off from work and began to enact what I termed BATMAN PLAN 142 a.k.a. RUN LIKE THE ZOMBIES ARE AFTER YOU. I have a nice little gym in my apartment complex and I would get up every morning and begin with the traditional Chinese kung fu warm up that I learned at Beijing Tai Chi and Kung Fu Academy (hello Sifu Wang!) and then move into running on the treadmill and elliptical before doing some weight training.

I knew that the key to winning the role would be massive cardio that would give me unstoppable stamina. I've spent my life in the pit at Fishbone, Bungle, Primus, Chili Pepper, and Jane's Addiction shows, so I had a good start, but it wasn't going to be enough. If I was lucky enough to be cast in the show, I'd have to be able to actually dance, sing and speak where most other artists might have some artificial sweetener running off a computer backstage.

So I sat down and went through my music collection and put together a playlist that allowed me to drop 20 lbs by the time we were auditioning the show. I've since lost more, simply because wearing a four layer costume with a hat and spats under theatrical lighting is, in itself, a hell of a workout routine.

If you want to enact BATMAN PLAN 142 in your own home, acquire these songs and run the program!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

From the first day of rehearsal, I've been in love with this cast. They are the late 80's Showtime Lakers, the monsters of the midway who cannot be stopped by man nor beast and win with a charming smile. So Showtime has been on my mind for a good many months and now, here we are, the NBA Finals, where the Lake-Men of Many A Police/Los Angeles have engaged their ancient foes, the Celts of Boss-Tone, and all appears to be written to a conclusion that is as demented as our own third act!

Of course, SHOWTIME might also spark a memory of Sifu Fosse and his marvelous biopic where the tired old showman has to summon the lightning every morning to limited (or diminishing?) results. Thankfully, although I've heard MANY of my brothers and sisters exult that rasping "Showtime...!" into the window over the past month, we are not experiencing anything other than a persistence of joy on FZ6D. We are, many of us, working multiple gigs as the show rolls through the fields of battle, and so we often find ourselves entering the Sixth Dimension after a ten hour day spent in the company of those who might not consider our art. It makes it quite easy to shed the scales of worry and loss when you get to armor up and engage King Fausto or The Devil Himself in merriment and delusional games.

The joy comes in hearing laughter in new places in the show, and in watching friends and strangers alike come alive with pleasure after their long day in Lost Assholes, Califunktion. The joy is present when you realize that the person in the front row is just as in love with the tale as the people on stage. The joy is alive and unstoppable when you realize that you didn't recognize close friends because you had never seen their face with a look of SHOCK upon it! Would that there was a bar behind the spinny walls of the Sixth Dimension so that we never had to leave and we could just wrap ourselves in your love as we all fall down a bottle of single malt Scotch whisky together. Cheers!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Tonight I was at the local bar and ran into a couple of fellows who had seen the show. Their perspective was interesting because they've done this kind of thing before, on a nightly basis, with much higher stakes (their livelihoods) and a bigger house. And food service, which is a whole other mother of fuck.

I knew they liked the show, but their fermented focus was what I was seeking. "It's a show that just requires you to be able to have fun, to enjoy yourself, which not everyone is capable of doing." said the former booker and current wonderful DJ.

"L.A. is now the center of fun theatre!" said the manager/ass-kicker who shepherded a bunch of killer rock gigs you went to or read about over the past few years. "Seattle is an island, New York is great but serious bid-nass, San Francisco is holding its breath for what's next and Chicago has amazing drama but is not freaky-fun. This is FUN, this is the kind of shit you only get in Los Angeles. This is the devil's town! No one does Halloween like this!" he continued, as I grabbed another Jack and Coke.

We have gone through another wonderful weekend and now we approach the Sunday shows which mark a month of production, a month of life for this Zombaby. If this was an actual bambino, I would be bothering the shit out of all of you with photos of the thirty day anniversary. But this multi-headed demon we have birthed is no photogenic walking wallet that looks to suckle from you until your resources are depleted. This is SHOW, and SHOW only requires one thing, which is your butt in a seat. SHOW does not need love, SHOW only wants to hear you breathing and SHOW will take care of itself. SHOW will tell you what is good and what is bad. SHOW will not ask to go to prom! SHOW doesn't need a car or a trip to Disneyland. SHOW only wants a full house for ninety minutes time and then SHOW is happy.

To be honest, SHOW is not the kind of baby you want. You probably are a normal sort who actually wants more than a season's worth of interaction. This is why you and I are different. This is why I am Satan and you are hoping to be a parent or (eek) are a parent. If I had a baby boy, I would name him Iago Atari Bruce Wayne Richards, which is fine if I were to home-school him, but I think that home-schooling is exactly how you set up a kid to get his ass beat later in life, so it is probably better I don't have a kid and that I am left to care for SHOW.

Just letting you know where I'm at.See you in the house this weekend for the Friday, Saturday, and now SUNDAY shows!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

MERDE! We sold out the first two weeks of FZ6D, including the dreaded Memorial Day weekend. Traditionally the second week of a show sees a drop-off in attendance. There are a lot of reasons for this; everyone's friends and family come to opening weekend, press is there right off the bat if you've done your job correctly, and fans of the show will want to see it early so they can crow/nerd out to their friends about their geek primacy ("FIRST!")

So it was very interesting and heartening to see that we had sold out the show two days ahead of the weekend. It was SPECTACULAR to have the kind of Friday night that we did. It was packed, seats added to the front row, hot as Hell and full of crazy, candy/alcohol-fueled energy. I sweated off the Satan beard by the third number and by the fifth number the amazing glitter brows designed by Kat Bardot were cutting loose and flopping over my eyes like venetian blinds. Just a fantastic set of shows so far and lots more to come. The production has taken on an interesting balance as we continue to tweak audio and timing with the actors settling into their roles and finding new moments every show. I am becoming entranced by certain scenes in the show and have to take care not to blow a line because I'm caught listening to the show; I think that the courtship scene between Frenchy and Fausto (the painting scene) and the aria that Rene (Matt Valle) sings at the start of Queen's Revenge are extraordinary bits of theater and show the real heart that beats at the core of the show.

So we've done four shows so far and after every show, when I'm out on the street saying hello to friends, I've been approached by a stranger who opens the conversation with this sentence, "I'm the biggest Oingo Boingo fan you're ever going to meet..." I'm glad that I'm meeting these people. The producers had hoped that you still existed and carried the fire of Halloween in your heart while we went through the terrible drought of Boingo music that has plagued us over the past few years. I'm very glad that you find what we have wrought to be Of The Body and not something to be despised and forgotten. I stood with you at a hundred Boingo shows from 1986 forward. We have raised our voices together to scream "NO SPILL BLOOD!" in response to the query, "WHAT IS THE LAW?" My solidarity will always be with you, The Biggest Oingo Boingo Fan I Will Ever Meet, and I will do my best to scorch your soul with Real Hellfire every show. So, please, tell everyone you meet from this day forward what you have witnessed under the smoldering eaves of Sacred Fools. Tell them that Frenchy lives to dance. Tell them that Bust Rod is the King of Tap. Tell them that Fausto presents his arguments of conquest in new battle-armor.

Monday, May 17, 2010

We've seen over a hundred people come through the door now in service of the idea of re-animating the Zone and I want to thank them properly in the best way I know how. By exhibiting their artwork to big houses, full of enormously entertaining people who are enthusiastic about art and performance, rowdy motherfuckers who laugh too long and scream too loud but bring the energy to a BOIL.

In short, YOU. In the front row. Putting the EEK in our weekend!

Tickets for this magnificent beast of a show are on sale now for all performances at www.FZ6D.com or head over to www.SacredFools.org and the result shall be the same. You and your fellows will have money extracted (as if by magic!) from your private pirate accounts and entry will be permitted for a short while to the riotous pleasure and exquisite pain of the Sixth Dimension.

The work over the past many weeks with our cast, our musicians, our crew, our technical staff, our designers, and our producers and gracious director has been easily the most fun and inspirational work I've done in the happiest circumstances with the greatest amount of talent gathered under one roof in my life in art. This little clown show proves to be made of the new element Operanium, and is dementedly touching while remaining terrifyingly sexy and salaciously horrible. You all have my eternal love for your devotion to art.

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

This blog follows the production of "Forbidden Zone: LIVE in the 6th Dimension" as it moves from workshop performances of the script and music, to the audition process and casting, to rehearsals and the build of the show, finally opening in May 2010. That's soon! Contributors include adaptation author and executive producer Michael Holmes, director and producer Scott Leggett, music producer Marz Richards, music director Ryan Johnson, and choreographer Natasha Norman. Enter the Sixth Dimension with us and stay informed. It's the only way you'll survive the experience.